Cooking Attempts 30~32: Cream of Carrot Soup, Shoyu Ramen and Potato Salad

I'm putting these dishes together, because I basically copied the recipe online. I just love looking at pictures of food. I could watch the Food Network all day, I swear. Except when they have a zillion barbeque shows in a row, because it's boring, the hosts (usually men) are always half-shouting at the camera and they never ever wear gloves when they're handling the meat.

Cream of Carrot Soup
This is basically a reworking of the smoky potato and broccoli soup I made in October. I love love LOVE the warm orange colour. I also like to add a ton of pepper just before I eat it. Mmm~



Shoyu Ramen
This is soy sauce flavoured ramen that I made from scratch! I think Korean instant ramen is the best, but if you want authentic ramen, it's Japanese all the way.



Potato Salad
I didn't use red potatoes like it says in the recipe, but it was still yummy. Red or yellow, you still get the potassium in the skin. Go go, potassium!

Cooking Attempt #29: Sushi Pizza

Actually, it's smoked salmon pizza, but I got the idea at a restaurant near Vaughan Mills that Robert and I went to some time ago. It was my first time having salmon sushi pizza and I've wanted to try making it ever since.

Ingredients:
rice
soy sauce
130g package of smoked salmon
1 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp wasabi
1 tsp vinegar
chopped green onion

I looked around on the web to find the best way to make the crispy rice crust. The one that seemed the most plausible was to brush the rice with soy sauce and then pan fry it. First I lined a small circular tupperware with saran wrap. Then I scooped some cooked rice into it and squashed it down to make a nice thin patty (less than 1cm thick). The saran wrap made it easy for me to pop out of the mold. The best way to cook it is to brush one side with soy sauce, but not too much that it starts to fall apart. You can brush the other side with soy sauce while it's frying in the pan. I cooked it for about 5 minutes on both sides until it was a nice brown. It worked well, but I think the crust at the restaurant was crispier. Almost like tempura. I'm going to have to try it again in Toronto. This is the hardest part, really.

This is the nicest one, don't you think?

I cut the sliced smoked salmon into smaller bite-size pieces and mixed the mayo, wasabi and vinegar together. I spread the salmon on the crust, drizzled the sauce and sprinkled the green onion on top. Voilà! You could also add sliced avocadoes, but I'm not a big fan.



Doesn't it look pretty good for a first try? I'm taking the prettier ones to the hospital tomorrow for lunch.